Theodore Roosevelt, Barack Obama and me

by Joel on May 19, 2011

Here’s the connexion. I began the third grade, as did Barack Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, as a transfer student to Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School in Ponca City, Oklahoma. I transferred there in 1963 from James A. Garfield Elementary, while Obama’s mother transferred there in 1950 from Jefferson Elementary, both in Ponca City. The story originally appeared in the Ponca City News, written by long-time friend and journalist Beverly Bryant, a fellow graduate of Ponca City Senior High School, class of 1973.

If the story received any play before the 2008 general election, it would not seem to have been of any benefit to Obama, as Kay County, of which Ponca City makes up a little more than half the population, gave 29.22% of its vote to Obama and 70.78% to McCain, as compared to the 2004 results of 29.67% for Kerry and 70.33% for Bush.